'Real Housewives of Atlanta' husband Apollo Nida fails to show up for prison
"Real Housewives of Atlanta" cast member Phaedra Parks (right) and Apollo Nida. (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Cirque du Soleil)
(CNN) -- "Real Housewives of Atlanta" husband Apollo Nida failed to showed up Wednesday as ordered to start an eight-year federal prison sentence for a fraud conviction.
Nida was still in Atlanta at the home he shared with his wife, "Real Housewives" co-star Phaedra Parks, Wednesday after the noon deadline that U.S. marshals gave him to turn himself in to the minimum-security federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky.
Park's publicist, Steve Honig, who was at the home when Nida arrived Wednesday afternoon, and Honig told CNN "there was an incident," although he declined to give details on the record.
A source who witnessed the incident told CNN that Nida came to the house because he was upset that Parks would not deposit money into his prison account. The source asked not to be identified.
The U.S. Bureau of Prison's online inmate locator confirmed that Nida, 35, was not yet in custody, although he had been assigned the prisoner number 65725-019.
The U.S. Marshals Service and Nida's lawyer did not immediately respond to CNN calls about Nida's status Wednesday evening.
Parks, a lawyer and reality TV star, would not comment on the record about tabloid reports that she was upset that Nida ignored his children and spent much of his time drinking in clubs during his last weeks of freedom.
"Phaedra is now putting all of her energy into ensuring the well-being of her two children and making decisions that are in their best interests," her publicist said in a statement to CNN Wednesday. "This situation has put a tremendous strain on Phaedra and her family, and she is working hard to bring back a sense of normalcy to everyone's lives."
Nida, who appears on the reality TV series with Parks, was arrested in January and pleaded guilty in May to charges in a fraud scheme that federal prosecutors say stole millions of dollars from at least 50 people over four years.
He must serve five years under parole supervision after he completes his eight years in a federal prison, U.S. District Court Judge Charles A. Pannell, Jr. ordered during sentencing in July.
This is the second prison stint for Nida, who previously served five years in a federal prison for auto title fraud before marrying Parks in 2009.
Nida created two fake collection companies to gather personal information used to steal victims' identities, U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said after his sentencing in Atlanta. He used the information to get fraudulent auto loans in the names of his victims, according to the criminal complaint.
He was busted after a year-long investigation by the U.S. Secret Service.
The break in the case came in September, when federal investigators arrested Gayla St. Julien, a woman who "described herself as Nida's 'right hand b----' in executing the legwork of his fraud schemes," the criminal complaint said.
St. Julien, who previously served prison time for identity theft, told agents that Nida "only paid her 'scraps'" for her work, compared to the amount of money he made from the fraud schemes," the filing said. She turned on him and agreed to let agents record their phone calls, it said.
Nida "knowingly and willfully (did) execute and attempt to execute a scheme to defraud federally insured financial institutions by depositing stolen and fraudulently obtained checks and fraudulently obtained auto loan proceeds into bank accounts opened in the stolen identities of real persons, and conspire with others to do so, and knowingly convert to his use and the use of others stolen and fraudulently obtained United States Treasury Checks," Special Agent Alexandre Herrera said in a sworn affidavit.
Nida's fake companies fraudulently signed up with "LexisNexis, Equifax, and Mircrobilt databases" to steal personal information on people.
Along with the fraudulent auto loan checks, Nida stole U.S. Treasury checks, "retirement checks issued to Delta Airlines employees, and checks in the names of real people that were owed unclaimed property from various state and federal government agencies," the complaint said.
Agents recorded phone calls St. Julien made to Nida during which he discussed details of pending fraudulent auto loans and "details of future auto loan checks that he was expecting to receive any day now from in the mail," the affidavit said.